Post by someusername6 on Jan 16, 2017 23:42:19 GMT

Edit: This material has been promoted to the core game, as of patch 1.1.1.

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, is mentioned on wikipedia as one of the "most powerful explosives known". I found it while going through the "relative effectiveness factor" page, noticed it was more explosive than TNT and only slightly more dense, and other literature indicated it as a secondary explosive, on tables that also contained TNT and RDX (Cyclogen).

I have only used it so far as seeing that it is more expensive, but has a higher energy density, than other explosives in game.

The detonation velocity does not match the wikipedia value, I suspect, because I assumed a clean decomposition reaction -- into CO, CO2, H2O and N2, rather than the actual decomposition reaction, listed on the references below. This is in line with how other combustibles are modeled in game, however.

Post by someusername6 on Jan 17, 2017 4:29:21 GMT

Well, you've got something for almost every weapon. What's next, new fissiles?

I did look into it. Turns out that it is hard to beat uranium oxides as far as uranium compounds go for melting points (and someone will just chime in this will become irrelevant once a future patch puts the material into ceramic pebbles), and I haven't yet found any open literature on uranium alloys, mixed matrix composites, and glasses. I'll keep looking / thinking about it.

But! But you can use PETN on your nukes, if you really care about minimizing mass at expense of cost, as it has a higher energy density. So it's not all lost.

Post by omnipotentvoid on Feb 13, 2017 14:29:36 GMT

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, is mentioned on wikipedia as one of the "most powerful explosives known". I found it while going through the "relative effectiveness factor" page, noticed it was more explosive than TNT and only slightly more dense, and other literature indicated it as a secondary explosive, on tables that also contained TNT and RDX (Cyclogen).

-snip-

"The most powerful explosive known"?

There are enough explosives on the R.E. factor article that have a higher relative effectiveness.I suspect the PETN article may be out of date or ignoring more powerful, but experimental or extremely expensive, substances. Some substances like heptanitrocubane have a RE factor of over 2 and even octogen (which is already modeled in game) has a higher one. But I guess you probably know that.

If you want some really exotic and powerful stuff, check out azidoazide azide (C2N14). It's so unstable that even the people 200 years in the future will probably have trouble controlling it. But it should turn out be incredibly powerful, if they ever get enough of it in one place, without it spontaneously exploding, to test its effectiveness.

Post by someusername6 on Feb 13, 2017 15:07:58 GMT

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, is mentioned on wikipedia as one of the "most powerful explosives known". I found it while going through the "relative effectiveness factor" page, noticed it was more explosive than TNT and only slightly more dense, and other literature indicated it as a secondary explosive, on tables that also contained TNT and RDX (Cyclogen).

-snip-

"The most powerful explosive known"?

There are enough of explosives on the R.E. factor article have a higher relative effectiveness.I suspect the PETN article may be out of date or ignoring more powerful, but experimental or extremely expensive, substances. Some substances like heptanitrocubane have an RE factor of over 2 and even octogen (which is already modeled in game has a higher one. But I guess you probably know that.

If you want some really exotic and powerful stuff, check out azidoazide azide (C2N14). It's so unstable that even the people 200 years in the future will probably have trouble controlling it. But it should turn out be incredibly powerful if they ever get enough of it in one place without it spontaneously exploding to test its effectiveness.

There is a plural in there you are missing (though the location of my quote is a bit unfortunate). Any explosive is one of the most powerful ones known if you make that set large enough; I have to assume that that Wikipedia article was referring to secondary explosives in common use only.

Post by omnipotentvoid on Feb 13, 2017 16:20:53 GMT

There are enough of explosives on the R.E. factor article have a higher relative effectiveness.I suspect the PETN article may be out of date or ignoring more powerful, but experimental or extremely expensive, substances. Some substances like heptanitrocubane have an RE factor of over 2 and even octogen (which is already modeled in game has a higher one. But I guess you probably know that.

If you want some really exotic and powerful stuff, check out azidoazide azide (C2N14). It's so unstable that even the people 200 years in the future will probably have trouble controlling it. But it should turn out be incredibly powerful if they ever get enough of it in one place without it spontaneously exploding to test its effectiveness.

There is a plural in there you are missing (though the location of my quote is a bit unfortunate). Any explosive is one of the most powerful ones known if you make that set large enough; I have to assume that that Wikipedia article was referring to secondary explosives in common use only.

Octonitrocubane and heptanitrocubane are secondary explosives and should be cheaper than today. How much so depends on how easy it becomes to make cubane in 200 years. As for azidoazide azide, that was more of a joke. Publications on the substance state:

Due to their behavior during the process of synthesis, it was obvious that the sensitivities (of these compounds) will be not less than extreme. . .The sensitivity of C2N14 is beyond our capabilities of measurement. The smallest possible loadings in shock and friction tests led to explosive decomposition. . .